Clicking on the images will enlarge them. Clicking on vertical format images will make them fit the screen. This works well with Mozilla Firefox (which provides a nice grey backdrop) and Opera, less well with Chrome (which moves the images to the left of the screen instead of centring them).

When she saw me photographing this fire wall, the attendant of the parking lot on the right, a Chinese woman, came out of her cabin to announce: „Seventeenth century!“ No doubt the old house looked like those in the watercolour by Sproule.

The previous cathedral, which stood on a different site, perished in the great fire of 1852, which destroyed large parts of the city. There can be little doubt that Victor Bourgeau, to whom bishop Ignace Bourget entrusted the new project, could have come up with any number of alternatives to a simple imitation of St Peter’s. Finally he resigned the commission. But he did supervise the construction of the cathedral when it finally began in 1875; I am not clear to what extent he was responsible for the design. After his death in 1888 he was succeeded by Joseph Michaud, who completed the building in 1894. Michaud may have been the author of the plans from the start.

Bourget, who became bishop of Montréal already in 1840, was clearly as ultramontane as he was obstinate, qualities attested by the very cathedral in which he rests. Another great ambition that he pursued was the founding of a catholic university in Montréal. However, the archbishop of Québec, who did not wish for competition for his own Laval University, intervened with the Holy See to block this project, prompting Bourget to resign his bishopric in 1876.

The organ (originally 52/IV+P) has (of course…) been altered and expanded repeatedly — in 1955 by Casavant themselves, in 1988 by Guilbault-Thérien. One does not trust electropneumatic organs of the period around 1900, even less so if they have been bastardised by later interventions. But the lady in the organ loft played for about half an hour before the start of the (main?) sunday service (very thinly attended), and she had one rapt listener — me. This organ sounds fantastic. Which was the more amazing because it was used here for playing a baroque repertoire. (The old priest shuffling towards the entrance in this picture came back to celebrate mass.)

You canhear the organon the internet with the andante from Widor’s Symphonie gothique, played by Nina de Sole. You can alsosee itat the same time, but then the sound quality is abysmal. The Youtube video makes me suspect that the lady whom I photographed is Madame de Sole, while the audio file corroborates my memory of the excellent sound of the organ. Despite repeated attempts to understand him Widor is not my cup of tea at all — but when he sounds as he does on this organ I am reconciled even to Widor.

Mitchell and Forté also built the large organ preceding the 1901 Casavant in this church. For the chancel organ (8/I+P) they are stated to have used the case of the positif de dos (a rückpositiv or separate choir organ) of an organ that Thomas Elliot (London) apparently supplied to Notre-Dame cathedral in Québec in 1803. Mitchell rebuilt that organ in 1866 and supposedly acquired the positif de dos in the process. The case itself is attributed to Thomas Baillairgé – for example on the label found on the organ — and dated between 1821 and 1829. The organ is now on loan to the church from the Musée des Beaux-Arts du Québec, which has affixed the label; there must be some solid evidence for this dating. (It might be observed that a proper label should also contain information about the actual instrument contained in the organ case.)

But this information is confusing. Why would an organ two decades old have been given a new case? And English organs of the turn of the 19C no longer had separate choir organs, but were always contained in a single case. Moreover, this instrument looks like a perfectly normal small stand-alone organ. To be sure, the décor certainly fits in well with that of Québec cathedral (on which see further down). So, was this organ in fact younger, or is the case older, in which case it was perhaps the work of Thomas Baillairgé’s father or grandfather, who preceded him as architects responsible for the construction of Québec cathedral? But to make the matter more confusing still: this organ case rather resembles that of the organ which Elliot supplied to the Anglican cathedral at Québec at almost the same time (1804) (here is a drawing; for details of this organ see further down). So, was that case also made only after the organ had arrived rather than provided by Elliot along with the instrument itself? — And was it really only the case that was reused in 1866? For the specification of the organ is stated to be (see above).

I have added in brackets what these stops would be called in a classic English organ (unfortunately I have no photograph of the stop knobs and I do not know in which language they are labelled on the organ). With the exception of the overblowing Flûte harmonique, which unambiguously belongs to 19C French organ building, and the lack of any upperwork (mixture, sesquialtera, cornet) this is the stop list of a typical 18C English chamber organ. The compass of the instrument is 54 notes, of which both the Montre and the Dulciana lack the bottom twelve: both „borrow“ these from the Bourdon, which is why the „Basse de Bourdon“ (containing those very twelve notes) can be drawn separately. That arrangement too is typical of smaller English organs. And so very English a stop as the Dulciana certainly looks odd in stop list labelled in French. Finally: where else but in 18 and early 19C England did people gild the front pipes of an organ? (Of course one would dearly like to know whether those are speaking pipes or dummies.) To be sure, Mitchell and Forté themselves were products of an English organ building tradition, as pupils of Samuel Warren (1809-82). Warren, a native of Rhode Island, trained by Appleton in Boston, and subsequently established at Montréal, was the most important Canadian organ builder before the Casavant brothers. On the other hand Warren himself introduced many innovations of contemporary French organ building in Canada. It seems possible that much of the pipework originally in this organ was preserved, with the addition perhaps only of the Flûte harmonique (replacing some kind of upperwork, little esteemed in the latter part of the 19C?) and of the pedals. Indeed, for an organ built in 1866 the stop list seems rather anachronistic. Nor would the front pipes of a new organ have been gilded – that habit had long gone out of fashion and is not even in harmony with the French style of the case.

For once, a change from the usual Casavant electropneumatics. The original cathedral organ provided by William Hill of London had undergone multiple rebuilds and extensions (more than once undertaken by Casavant) when, in 1979, it was decided to sell the old organ in separate parts and start over. Karl Wilhelm was born in 1936 in Lichtental in what was then Rumanian Bessarabia (Svetlodolinskoye in present-day Ukraine). Trained as an organ builder with Laukhuff in Weikersheim (Germany) and Metzler in Dietikon (Switzerland), in 1960 he was brought to Canada by Casavant as that company was seeking to adapt to the aims of the orgelbewegung with its call for a return to the classical, fully mechanical organ (that influence clearly did not last however — as their website shows, and almost unimaginably from a contemporary German perspectice, Casavant are still churning out instruments with electro-pneumatic action, nor do the specifications look particularly „classical“ but continue to show romantic influence). In 1966 Wilhelm founded his own company. The organ was being played while I visited. Maybe it was the fault of the player. But to my surprise I was rather underwhelmed: the sound was nice, but nothing…special. No patch on the monster Casavant in the Église du Gesù.

Montréal: Christ Church Cathedral

Montréal: Christ Church Cathedral

Montréal: Christ Church Cathedral

Montréal: Christ Church Cathedral

Der Wolkenkratzer, der sich da links mit spiegelt, ist ein Frühwerk eines inzwischen ziemlich berühmten Architekten.The skyscraper mirrored here to the left of the cathedral spire is an early work by an architect who has since become quite famous.

The Hudson’s Bay Company, founded in 1670 and colloquially known as „The Bay“ or „La Baie“, plays a great role in Canadian history. Today it manifests itself principally as a chain of department stores. This building, originally built for a different company, was taken over by it in 1959.

The spire in the distance was built by Victor Bourgeau in 1876 for the church of St-Jacques. The church itself was destroyed by fire in 1933, repaired only in makeshift fashion, and largely demolished in the 1970s. The tower became part of the new UQÀM campus (Université du Québec à Montréal). Bourgeau was a great architect — committed to neogothic forms, but never conventional. Somehow, whatever he designed is always decidedly un-boring, like this tower.

The church was built in 1843-47 for the Irish Catholics to a design by Pierre Morin, a French-speaking Québecois — while, ironically, the main church of the French population, Notre-Dame in Place d’Armes, was designed by an Irish architect, John O’Donnell. The interior was created in 1848-51 by Victor Bourgeau. It is perhaps not as spectacular as his work in Notre-Dame thirty years later, but in its own way stupendous.

Samuel Warren built the organ (31/III+P) in 1852; the case must have been designed by Bourgeau. Casavant rebuilt the instrument in 1895 and made the action electropneumatic. Pipework by Warren was reused, the case was divided and moved apart so the rose window could be opened. The organ gallery built on this occasion is stated to have been designed by Bourgeau also — but he died in 1888. Of course the organ was not spared further alterations. With 33 stops (among them eight by Warren) on three manuals and pedals its current version is surprisingly small.

A new cathedral designed by Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry is built in 1747-48. For the time being it essentially remains a shell, badly damaged in the British bombardment of Québec in 1759. The rebuilding of 1766-71, in accordance with the original plans, is supervised by Jean Baillairgé, whose own alternative designs are rejected — mindful, it would seem, of limited funds, Baillairgé proposes a lowering of the walls, already built, of the central aisle and the placing of all three aisles of the nave under a single roof, at the expense of the clerestory envisaged by Chaussegros de Léry. Only the belltower (on the right) is built as replanned by Baillairgé, in simplification of the original design. His grandson Thomas Baillairgé undertakes a remodelling of the west front begun in 1843 but carried out only in part.

Apparently the adornment of the interior is postponed once more. As, presumably, in 1748, no doubt the reason is lack of funds. From 1786 onwards, however, decoration of the interior is finally carried out, to designs by Jean Baillairgé and his son François. The plaster ceilings are designed by François Baillairgé in 1819 and finished in 1822. A fire on 22 December 1922 caused by arson leaves nothing but the bare walls. Reconstruction of the cathedral to a close approximation of its 19C appearance, based on extensive research and original plans, is complete by 1930, but concrete and steel are now among the building materials.

François de Laval (as he styles himself — presumably, omitting the prestigious name Montmorency is a gesture of modesty?) becomes Apostolic Vicar of New France in 1658 and first bishop of Québec in 1674. In 1684 he resigns the bishopric and moves into the seminary that he has founded in 1663 and which becomes Laval University in 1852. The funerary chapel in the cathedral is designed in 1991 by Émile Gilbert.

Construction of this skyscraper — headquarters of the eponymous company, which went bankrupt soon after — in the historic upper city of Québec was controversial at the time and led to a rule limiting the height of future new buildings to 19.8m. Today the building is owned by the city. At the top is the residence of the prime minister of the province of Québec.

QuébecBlick auf Unterstadt und St.-Lorenz-StromA view of the lower town and the St Lawrence River

Throughout the 18C the hierarchy of the Church of England obstinately rejected demands for the creation of bishoprics in the British overseas possessions — which meant that no priests could be consecrated there (unlike, for example, the Spanish colonies, which were equipped with cathedrals early on). Amazingly, Holy Trinity was the very first purpose-built Anglican cathedral outside the British Isles.

George England and his son George Pike England are among the best known London organ builders of the second half of the 18C. This instrument was purchased in 1811 by Sir William Bagshawe for his country seat Oakes Park near Sheffield. There it stood in the specially altered dining hall until the 1980s, when the family gave up the property. Acquired at an auction by a Canadian collector, in 2004 the organ was finally donated to the cathedral on the occasion of its bicentenary. The curious bulge at the back results from a larger reservoir being fitted in 1836; all other parts are original. Swell pedal (works on the entire organ: Venetian blind in the roof, nag’s head sweller for the hautboy operated by the same pedal), shifting movement (this shuts off all stops except the 8′ ones, allowing the player to switch between forte and piano). Compass GG, AA-f“‘. Unequal temperament very close to that used by Silbermann. The pitch is a third of a semitone below modern standard pitch. All stops are of common metal except for the hautboy (tin) and the stop(ped) diapason (wood). The front pipes are wooden dummies. The double glass doors fold back to align with the sides of the case, which presumably makes the organ louder.

The cathedral’s first organ was an instrument by Thomas Elliot (10/II), dispatched from London and inaugurated already in 1804 (drawing of the case). It now stands in the church of St Louis, Lotbinière, Québec, but having remained unchanged until then in 1949 it was greatly altered and equipped with a pedal division by Casavant. In Holy Trinity it was replaced in 1847 by an instrument furnished by the London firm of Bevington & Sons. The specification is no longer known. In subsequent years the Bevington organ was the object of frequent complaints. These, however, probably have to be treated with caution, since mostly they seem to have originated with the organ builder Samuel Warren. His endeavours to have the organ replaced completely were rebuffed repeatedly, but eventually this did happen — apparently in 1885, three years after Warren’s death, when the firm had been taken over by his son. But there is contradictory information as to the exact year, as well as regarding the extent to which parts of the old instrument were reused in the new one (35/III+P?). In 1909 the instrument was again replaced by Casavant (45/III+P), although most of the existing stops were apparently reused. The action was electropneumatic. In 1926 the console was moved to its present position in the chancel.

Short was a British officer in the fighting in North America during the Seven Years War. The engraving is an accurate depiction of the façade of the church, but suggests rather larger dimensions of the square than it really has!

Québec: Notre Dame des Victoires

Québec: Notre Dame des Victoires

Québec

Ottawa: Parliament Hill

Ottawa: Parliament Hill

Ottawa: Parliament Hill

Ottawa: Parliament Hill

Ottawa: Parliament Hill

Ottawa: Mündung des Rideau-Kanals in den Ottawa-Fluß / Junction of the Rideau Canal with the Ottawa River

The Rideau Canal was planned after the 1812 war between Britain and the United States, as part of a new, more northerly waterway between Montréal and Lake Ontario that would be better protected from US attacks than the St Lawrence River, situated on or near the border itself. Here, at the start of the canal, a series of locks leads down to the Ottawa River. It was the construction of this canal, opened in 1832, that caused the town of Ottawa to come into existence.

The series of locks was necessary because, suboptimally for navigation purposes, the Rideau River effects its junction with the Ottawa River (in the foreground) by means of two waterfalls (only one of them visible here). The roof in the background at the very left belongs to 24 Sussex Drive, the official residence of the Canadian prime minister.

Built 1841-46. With the lower part of the structure cut off in the picture, only the lintel over the main door shows that the original design was a neo-classical one. The walls were already standing when it was decided to build a neogothic church after all. The windows — but not the doors — were altered accordingly, and the spires added in 1858. To give (twin) spires a silver metallic paint job was a fashion that only ever caught on in Québec, as far as I know, but there its results are plentiful. (To be sure Ottawa is just beyond the border, formed by the Ottawa River, in Ontario, but of course culturally this building belongs to Québec.)

The presbytery of the cathedral was added from 1862 onwards. The design, like that of the spires, is by the cathedral parish priest, Damase Dandurand. However, for the interior decoration Dandurand called on Victor Bourgeau, who was also responsible for the new interior of the Basilique Notre-Dame in Montréal.

The presbytery of the cathedral is decorated with some sixty wooden statues, all of them the work of the clearly inevitable Louis-Philippe Hébert (who carved them between 1879 and 1887). (By which I mean no disrespect to Hébert, who was certainly talented.)